The greatest objection to giving this part of the vision such a literal interpretation is, that it fails to bring out its symbolic character. To what, then, does it refer? We have, as before, a horseman, indicating that the agent is one of the same general character, differing mainly in his features and mission. This horse was of a livid, cadaverous hue, denoting an agent of ghastly, terrible nature. The living rider bore the awful name of "Death," or as in the original, "The Death," by way of emphasis. Death literally was not the agent—it is not so stated—but the rider was termed The Death, or The Destroyer, because of his terrible mission; and Hell followed with him.
Applying the laws of symbolic language as heretofore, it is evident that this symbol represents a great persecuting ecclesiastical power. And with this thought before us, we can scarcely fail to recognize it as a true description of the Papacy. The great apostasy, described under the preceding seal, prepared the way for the final and complete establishment of the "man of sin"; but during the period there brought to view the ministers of religion, power-seeking and apostate as they were, were unable to enforce their claims by the power of persecution. Under the present seal, however, is represented a later stage of their corruption, when a great hierarchal system, sustained and upheld by the arm of civil power, was able to bear tyrannical rule over a great portion of the earth. During this period clerical ambition and usurpation reached its greatest height.
After speaking of the power possessed by the metropolitans, Mosheim says: "The universal church had now the appearance of one vast republic, formed by a combination of a great number of little states. This occasioned the creation of a new order of ecclesiastics, who were appointed in different parts of the world, as heads of the church, and whose office it was to preserve the consistence and union of that immense body, whose members were so widely dispersed throughout the nations. Such was the nature and office of the Patriarchs." Church History, Cent. II, part 2.
Thus, the bishops, or metropolitans, of certain of the most important cities were exalted to a still higher position as special heads of the church. They were termed Exarchs at first, after the title of the provincial governors, but afterwards received the more ecclesiastical appellation Patriarchs. The term Patriarch had been in use for a long time in the church signifying merely a bishop, irrespective of the dignity he possessed, but it was finally limited to this higher class of the clergy, in which sense I now employ it. The cities that first enjoyed this chief distinction were Alexandria, Rome, and Antioch. The general council of Nice (A.D. 325) in its sixth canon recognized the superior authority already possessed by these cities. See D'Aubigne's Hist, of Reformation, Vol. I, p. 41. The general council of Constantinople in its third canon placed the bishop of Constantinople in the same rank with the other three Patriarchs; and the general council of Calcedon exalted the See of Jerusalem to a similar dignity, doubtless because of its ancient importance as the birthplace of Christianity. Thus, Patriarchs were established in the five political capitals of the Roman empire; and they were considered the "heads of the church," having spiritual authority over the whole empire. These were the only Patriarchates of importance. Certain ecclesiastics of the Church of Rome even at the present time bear the honorary title Patriarch; but, to quote the words of the Encyclopædia Britannica, "In a strictly technical sense, however, that church recognizes only five Patriarchates, those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome." Art. Patriarch. In the years 637 to 640 Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch fell into the hands of the Saracen followers of Mohammed, which terminated their importance, and later the Greek schism separated the Patriarch of Constantinople from Rome; and thus the Patriarch of Rome was left in undisputed possession of the field and was soon recognized as universal head of the church. So under the symbol of this dread rider on a pale horse is portrayed the great hierarchal system by which the Papacy was fully developed in the West.
It is fitting that we notice particularly the agents of destruction employed by this rider. He possesses a sword with which to kill—the same instrument wielded by the rider of the red horse—but it is evident that he uses it with more terrific energy, by reason of which he receives the name Death, or The Destroyer. It is possible, also, that in this case a sword, wielded by the hand of an ecclesiastical power, may be used as a symbol of a spiritual cutting off, or excommunication. The sword of excommunication has been the most terrible ever wielded by human hand. When this pale horseman was careering over the world in the zenith of his power, excommunication and interdiction were the terror of individuals and the scourge of nations. At his word the rights of an individual as king, ruler, husband or father, nay, even as a man, were forfeited, and he was shunned like one infected with the leprosy. At his command the offices of religion were suspended in a nation, and its dead lay unburied, until its proud ruler humbled himself at the feet of the ecclesiastical tyrant who bore rule over the "fourth part of the earth."[4]
Footnote 4: [(return)]
This tyranny of the Popes is well illustrated by the quarrel that took place between Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.) and Henry IV. of Germany. Gregory attempted to make certain reforms, but Henry refused to recognize those innovations. Gregory excommunicated the emperor, with the result that he was "shunned as a man accursed by Heaven." His authority lost and his kingdom on the point of going to pieces, Henry had but one thing to do—seek the pardon of the Pope. He found the Pontiff at Canoosa, but Gregory refused to admit the penitent to his presence. "It was winter, and for three successive days the king, clothed in sackcloth, stood with bare feet in the snow of the court-yard of the palace, waiting for permission to kneel at the feet of the Pontiff and to receive forgiveness." On the fourth day he was granted admittance to the presence of the Pope.
During the Pontificate of Innocent III. Philip Augustus, king of France, put away his wife. Innocent commanded him to take her back and forced submission by means of an interdict. This submission of a brave, firm, and victorious prince shows the tremendous power wielded by the Popes in that period.
The manner, also, in which Innocent III. humbled King John of England affords another illustration of the power of the Popes. John caused the vacant See of Canterbury to be filled, in accordance with the regular manner of election, by one of his favorites. Innocent declared the appointment void, as he desired that the place should be filled by one of his friends. John refused to allow the Pope's archbishop to enter England as Primate. Innocent then excommunicated John, laid all England under an interdict, and incited Philip, king of France, to war, offering him John's kingdom upon the very liberal condition that he go over and take it. The outcome of the matter was that John was compelled to yield to the power of the Pope. He even gave him England as a perpetual fief, and agreed to pay the Papal See the annual sum of one thousand marks.
The loss of life by spiritual famine was extreme. The Word of God, which is spirit and life to God's people (Jno. 6:63), was laid under interdict and the common people deprived of its benefits. At the time the black horse appeared, a little food could be obtained at famine prices; but when the fourth arrived, he was empowered to kill "with hunger." Also, one of his agents of destruction was death, or pestilence, a fit symbol of false and blasphemous doctrines breathed forth like a deadly pestilence blasting everything within its reach. Invocation of saints, worship of images, relics, celibacy, works of supererogation, indulgences, and purgatory—these were the enforced principles of religion, and like a pest they settled down upon the people everywhere.
This rider also brought into operation "the beasts of the earth" to aid him in his destructive work. To kill with sword or hunger shows that such work of destruction is performed solely by him who has it in his power; but to kill with beasts indicates that they perform the deadly work according to their own natures. Nothing is clearer than the fact that wild beasts stand as a symbol of persecuting tyrannical governments; hence we are to understand that this rider was to employ also the arm of civil power to aid him in the deadly work. How strikingly this represents the historical facts of the case! In all truly Roman Catholic countries the civil governments were only a cipher or tool in the hands of the church, and the ecclesiastics were the real rulers of the kingdom. But whenever any dark work of persecution was to be performed, the wild beast was let loose to accomplish the result. When charged, however, with the bloody work, the Catholics always answer, "Oh, we never persecute—don't you see, it is the wild beasts that are covered with gore—our hands are clean," yet they themselves held the chain that bound the savage monsters. We shall have occasion in a subsequent chapter to trace further the pathway of this dread rider as he reels onward in the career of ages, "drunken with the blood of the saints."
This work of destruction performed by the dread rider on the pale horse is considered by many as a literal description of the persecutions of the Papacy. While Catholics usually charge the civil powers with this bloody work, it is an undeniable fact of history that the Popes often ordered or sanctioned crusades against the Waldenses, Albigenses, and other peoples (see remarks on verses [9-11], chap. [17:6]), in which the sword, starvation, and every other means of cruelty imaginable were brought into use to exterminate the so-called heresy. And in view of the fact explained in the comments on verses [3 and 4] of this chapter, that killing is sometimes to be understood in a literal sense on account of there being nothing to analagously represent such destruction of life, it is not a violation of the laws of symbolic language thus to interpret it. It might be consistent in this case to give it a twofold application; the agreeing facts of history regarding the Papacy strongly suggest it. Thus, the sword could signify a literal destruction of life, as in verse 4, and also, in the present case, an ecclesiastical cutting off by the Papacy, or excommunication; and hunger could signify literal death by starvation, and also, as in verses 5 and 6, a destruction of spiritual life, etc.
Where, let me ask, in the whole compass of human writings can be found a series of events of such thrilling interest, so great in magnitude, as is contained in these eight verses? Who but the Omnipotent could have conceived such a wonderful development of the power of iniquity and with such master-strokes of power compressed them into so small a scene of symbolic imagery? The impress of divinity is here speaking from every line.